A woman who came across an almost three-year-old lottery ticket when she cleaned the house before Christmas was amazed when it turned out to be a EUR 100,000 winner.
The lucky resident of Magdeburg, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, had put the ticket into a desk draw and forgotten about it after playing the local ‘Lotterie Super 6’ lottery in February 2021.
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, initially planned to carefully recheck the numbers after the winner was announced, local media reported on 26th December.
But instead of checking at the time, she forgot until she once again rediscovered the ticket and decided to see what the final numbers had been.
After learning that the numbers she selected almost three years ago had won her EUR 100,000 (GBP 86,765). The overwhelmed woman said: “I cannot believe it. It feels like rediscovering a forgotten treasure.”
The ticket, although old, was otherwise in pristine condition, lottery officials are quoted as saying by local media.
The overjoyed winner has revealed that going on holidays is on her to-do list.
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A spokeswoman for the Lotto-Toto Sachsen-Anhalt lottery enterprise said that she had spent EUR 40,20 (GBP 34,90) playing the same numbers for four weeks. And that the ticket had been obtained and registered for participation at a newsagent in the city centre of Magdeburg.
Lotto-Toto Sachsen-Anhalt director Stefan Ebert said the woman had a chance of one in a million to win EUR 100,000.
Wins worth EUR 600,000 (GBP 572,650) have not yet been claimed in Saxony-Anhalt. Only for the year 2021, according to lottery officials in the state.
Anyone who has a winning ticket purchased that year can claim their win until 31st December 2024.
Germany’s lottery companies achieved a turnover of EUR 8 billion (GBP 6.94 billion) in 2022.
A study determined that 181 participants won sums of EUR 1 million (GBP 867,650) and more that year.
Around seven million of Germany’s 83.2 million residents regularly play the lottery, pollsters IfD Allensbach found.
